


variations

by preromantics



Category: Star Trek (2009)
Genre: Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-30
Updated: 2010-12-30
Packaged: 2017-10-14 06:06:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 816
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/146187
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/preromantics/pseuds/preromantics
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Spock and Bones have to work together (again) to save Kirk (again.) It's a bit more serious, this time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	variations

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted 7/13/10.

McCoy doesn't need the coffee that Spock hands silently to him at his door to wake up -- he'd been up since his shift ended, worrying about Jim in the same way he had been all day, enough that he almost had to relieve his position early. He heard Spock had left shift early but didn't believe it -- Spock was his job, through and through. For the most part. (Except for maybe when he was having lunch with Jim -- the one time McCoy came in late to grab food after a surgery, sitting near the doors before he noticed them together, and he honest to god watched Spock tip his head back a fraction and open his mouth into something that looked suspiciously like a laugh.)

McCoy yawns once, walking toward the transporter room with Spock. Spock does little to fill him in on whatever plan he had, which is fine by McCoy, because it means he doesn't have to listen to Spock. He matches the quick pace of Spock's strides, though, apprehensive despite himself. He trusts Spock, although the trust had been slow coming. The fact that Jim trusted Spock with his life, and probably anything else he could offer, was something McCoy could not ignore. Despite his flaws, Jim's trust of people was not easily earned, and McCoy did not take his choices lightly.

"Aren't covert missions illogical?" McCoy asks, if only to break the heavy silence between them. "Not to mention against a ton of 'fleet policy?"

"Not everything that is illogical is also -- unnecessary," Spock says, stopping to duck down at the console of the transporter room, where a wary-eyed cadet backs away without a word.

McCoy thinks vaguely about how someone will have to relieve that cadet of his duty, not even putting up a fight against illegal transporter use, and he thinks about how Jim would probably laugh at that and keep the cadet on instead, in case he had to sneak down somewhere, because he would.

"The likelihood that this plan will --" Spock starts, apparently upon turning back to McCoy and catching his expression. McCoy himself doesn't want to know what his expression looks like, so he turns and gets on the transporter.

"I don't want to hear about statistics right now, Spock," he says, probably more gruffly than he means to, but God, with every time he gets dragged along on some rescue mission with Spock -- Spock, of all people, and this time alone, which means Jim will owe him a whole slew of illegal alcohol -- every time McCoy is just that much more afraid they aren't going to get Spock back.

Spock looks at him before he crouches down on the pad, and it's not like he's frowning, or doing anything especially unique with his face -- maybe McCoy is just getting better at reading him however Jim does, however Jim knows when Spock is distressed or pleased or whatever. (He really hopes he won't end up like Jim, then, noticing Spock being upset or something and then following him around with increasingly embarrassing attempts to cheer him up until they disappear for a while. The worst thing about that is when Chapel and the other nurses add to their betting pool -- that McCoy wants nothing with, thank you, -- on the degree of Spock and Kirk's working relationship.

There is something in Spock's expression, though, when McCoy looks. It's a little unsettling. "I confess I have not slept for the scenarios of this mission running through my head," Spock says, somewhat slowly.

"That's reassuring," McCoy says. He's close to rolling his eyes, but he can't seem too.

McCoy expects Spock to say something about how sarcasm is not appropriate at this time, or to try and give him another statistic, or to just energize and not say anything at all -- the best option, in McCoy's mind. Spock doesn't move, though.

"I find myself emotionally distressed by the Captain's increasingly frequent attempts to risk his own life in defense of others," Spock says.

McCoy wants to defend Jim for that -- it is his job, sort of -- but he agrees. "Yeah," he says, instead. "It's --"

Spock cuts him off this time. "Jim," Spock starts, which makes McCoy pay more attention, "Jim and I -- share a bond. It is of great import that we do not fail in this rescue, as I can feel his mind becoming weaker."

McCoy thinks fast, Vulcans, bonds, Jim -- and, oh. "Spock," he says, something strange in his voice, not shock, not -- he isn't sure. It makes sense, and it doesn't, and Jim.

Spock looks away, though, lips drawing together.

"Well, what are we waiting for, then?" McCoy says, after a second, as light and not full of the apprehension he feels as possible. He crouches down and Spock follows, mouth barely moving around the word 'energize' as McCoy follows.

They'll get Jim back, they always do.


End file.
